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Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Since finishing my 40 Bags in 40 Days project during Lent, I have only redoubled my efforts to declutter. It's addictive - once I start getting rid of stuff I want to get rid of more, and I find I am thinking twice about replacing it.

One strategy that is working well for me right now is to keep certain spaces in my house permanantly clutter-free. One big one for me is the surface of this buffet in my kitchen/eating area:

This used to be where my household files, piles of mail, and many other random items permanently lived. Yes, I only moved some of those items to other areas, but I find that each time I move things around, I am able to discard or consolidate some of them and better organize the others.

In the past, I have felt that keep spaces empty was just wasting them, especially in our small house where storage space is at a premium. But now I am finding that in many cases the opposite is true. Not only is it calming and visually pleasing to have the empty space as a fairly permanent fixure, but the space actually becomes more useful for temporary needs - in this case to hold a lunch buffet or as a place to dry art projects or cool cookies.

I freely admit that this surface does not remain 100% empty all the time. Stuff can definitely pile up over the course of the day or even a couple of days. But my goal has been to clear it off each evening, and I have now kept it pretty consistently clear over the past few months. Now I'm looking for other spaces in my house for which I can do the same thing.

2 comments:

Great advice. I call those spaces 'No Drop Zones.......or else' :) I try to make it fun for the kids to remember this newest rule in our home!I was blog hopping and found yours! I'm now following. If you have time, please check out my blog! http://www.mombyexample.com